There's no need to look up to see the clouds when you can make your own! With a bottle and just a few household ingredients, you can be a mad scientist for a day and control the weather. Here's how!

What You Need

One litre or two litre, clear plastic bottle with cap

Warm water

Matches

What To Do

Fill a bottle with just enough warm water to cover the bottom.

Light a match and let it burn for a few seconds.

Blow the match out and immediately place the head of the match into the bottle. Let the smoke from the match fill the bottle. After a few seconds, the smoke will seem to disappear.

Screw the cap onto the bottle. Try not to let any of the smoke or air escape.

Squeeze the sides of the bottle hard 6 or 7 times. Wait a few seconds, and squeeze the bottle again, but hold the squeeze for a few seconds and quickly release the squeeze.

Look at the formation of fog in the bottle and there's your very own cloud!

Tips

Experiment with how many times and how hard you squeeze the bottle. Squeezing the sides of the bottle forces the molecules to squeeze together or compress. Releasing the pressure allows the air to expand, and in doing so, the temperature of the air becomes cooler. This cooling process allows the molecules to stick together more easily forming tiny droplets, which is all that clouds really are!

Warnings

Using a match is not something that a child should do, so make sure that an adult is present for this experiment.